Birmingham City 4-5 Leeds United: Not Now

Stick around, they tell you at school, teaching you to be a good citizen, and you'll live through momentous occasions in history.

They say it like it's a good thing, but tell that to the witnesses of the Hindenburg disaster, or the witnesses of Birmingham City versus Leeds United at the end of the year of our lord 2019.

By all accounts this was Leeds United's first ever 5-4 win, but when I go to live on my eternal island alone, let me take a videotape of the Nordic broadcast of 1991's 5-4 defeat to Liverpool instead. Not this. I loved this and my team won, but I wouldn't know what to do with me and a tape of this game forever.

That Liverpool match lives long in the memory for reasons that mingle Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United. From Bielsa, there was the nobility of the resources used in a brave comeback from 4-0 down at half-time to the First Division champions, who since last playing at Elland Road had won six league titles and a European Cup among other things. In the first half John Barnes, Peter Beardsley and Ian Rush were unstoppable.

The Leeds part was the glory of losing anyway, and the injustice of a fifth goal disallowed for a foul on the goalkeeper. That's also why, as a Leeds fan, I prefer the Liverpool game: our defeats made us the club we are, even more than the wins.

Bielsa said the Birmingham game defied all previous analysis of his team, that United's clinical finishing but woeful defending was the opposite of their usual routine. That reversal applies beyond this season. That Liverpool game, and the successful comebacks we remember against Derby, Southampton and Bristol Rovers, were about snatching something — whether victory or defeat — from dire jaws. This game? Leeds had it won three times before their stoppage time winner. Pep Clotet complained afterwards about getting nothing from the referee, but he couldn't have asked for more from Leeds.